Posting for 9/16 on 9/13

After reading all of the readings for Tuesday, it is interesting to learn about how museums came about and what has to be done in order to make use that all people who have their cultures and objects presented for people to view. Reading from Museum Basics, it is interesting to learn about the different types of museums which have been developed based on their use, whether it be object based, or being used for political purposes. Also, it is rather enlightening to realize that museums can be used to revitalize an area. When I visited Glasgow, which is a really dumpy city, I visited the Museum of Art which is close to the railway station, which really made the city look a lot better. It was neat to see the different exhibits which were there, including paintings and sculptures in order to help bring a better look to the city. This museum brought money into the city through the gift shop and the coffee shop/library in the basement. As well, it is god to note that this museum of art could help with the sustainability of itself within the city through the class it brings to the surrounding area which will bring in more patrons to view the art which is contained there.
Along the same note, it is enlightening to see what is being done to try and decide among the different types of museums to have within a given area, like an object museum or to have a community museum. All of the different types of museums play their individual role and help the community. The types of museums run from the Tower of London established to hold the Crown Jewels to the Edinburgh Children's museum to the Cowdenbeath Community Center. All of these places are able to help their audiences with what they want to do, if it be educational, fun, interest, to having a place to stay and do things, like having a memorial to people who have passed on to having a bingo game for the community. All of these different types of museums play such a large role according to their uses and why they were created for their particular area.

After discussing the areas of museums, it is good to talk about how museums were developed. It is good to note that some museums were originally private collections which were donated to the city or country to run and to allow people to come in. It is also interesting to see how museums have come from being places where you need to have references from people about your character to being places where anybody can go in and use them. With the museums, people have been trained in order to run the museums who have organize the museums so they can be used, through being able to see the objects and making sure they will be protected. The only problem which comes up is that sometimes the objects do not have provenance, so people do not have a good idea where they came from.

This leads to a number of different cultures developing ways to make sure their objects are being presented in the best way possible so they can still be a part of their culture. The people whom the objects belong to know how best to take care of the objects, since they have the best curatorial skills for these objects. These ideas have led to NAGPRA which allows the Native American tribes to take back their objects and ancestors so they can be dealt with in the best sacred way possible. Also, there are groups of people, like the Greeks who have parts of the Parthenon stolen and stored in the British Museum. The Greeks want them back since they are part of their culture and they are still trying to get them back so they can take care of them. Thus we see that all native objects are not being stored in their proper location.